The Windows 10 April Update (1803): The Littlest Big Update
by Brett Howse on May 25, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Software
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Timeline
Arguably the biggest feature new feature for Windows 10 is one aimed squarely at productivity. Timeline is part of the Task view feature that was previously in Windows 10, and accessed in the same way, either by clicking the icon on the task bar, or pressing Win + Tab. The idea of Timeline is to make it very easy to get back into a task you were doing previously or find some information you know you had open in a browser.
Sorry for the poor screenshot but Timeline isn't working for me
By default, Timeline is only set to go back a single day, and apps will be sorted by hour. You can optionally enable it to go back 30 days as well, which seems like a more useful method to have as the default.
You can also adjust how Timeline works in the Privacy settings. When enabled, Timeline will sync activities from this PC, and also sync them to the cloud, so you can access documents and information across devices. But if you’d rather not have that data collected, you can disable the cloud sync, the local PC activity collection, or both.
Focus Assist
Another feature added with the April Update which focuses on keeping you focused is Focus Assist. After clamoring for notifications on the PC after seeing their benefit in mobile, it quickly became apparent that, while useful, notifications can also be a distraction.
In previous versions of Windows 10, Microsoft offers a Quiet Hours feature where you could set the PC to not provide notifications depending on the time, but with Focus Assist, that ability is expanded upon.
In addition to being able to schedule a time when notifications are muted, you can now change what level of notifications come through, with a custom priority list. You could in theory mute all notifications except those you want to see, which sounds fairly useful, or you could just set a time where you want to get some work done and only have alarms appear.
There’s also additional new automatic rules for notification action when duplicating a display, which will be very beneficial to avoid embarrassing notifications when using a projector, as well as when gaming.
Enabled by default is also a summary of notifications that were missed while focus assist was on, so if you were gaming, you’ll get a handy summary of everything that happened while you were having some fun, so you can get back to work.
This is of course still coupled with the notification settings where you can enable or disable notifications per-app.
Focus Assist is the kind of feature that Windows 10 needs. Notifications are great, but they can be distracting when you’re trying to get some work done. It would be great if Microsoft added some more settings here to allow you to create more automatic rules, such as when you have an app open, or additional time slots rather than just the single time you can enable it now.
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haplo602 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
Update itself went fine, however Tablet Mode stopped working after update. I have a convertible laptop (HP Envy x360). When I flip he device into tablet mode, screen rotation kicks in, keyboard and touchpad get disabled but no prompt to switch to tablet mode, when I set the option to not ask and switch, still nothing. I can only switch manually via action center.ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
That's hilariousSometimes I think they should replace "Saturday Night Live" with "Comedy Hour Updates"
It would be very entertaining to see all the most obnoxious, dastardly, destructive and moronic "updates" Microsoft has to offer on a weekly basis
Typo - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
only 1/3 of the computers in my house has gotten the update. Neither of my laptops seem to see it yet.ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Laptops usually get pushed back in the update scheme.pjcamp - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
I'd give all that up for the ability to put a live tile on the desktop. I use a third party app to keep Windows 7 gadgets running because a calendar reminder isn't very useful if I have to remind myself to open the start menu to see it.lmcd - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
This is a good look at the update for the consumer "Home" SKU, which many users are using. However, for me personally this is single-handedly the best update Windows 10 has had. This update adds two excellent features for developers.For Android Developers, this release launches the Windows Hypervisor platform, which allows for the Xamarin version of the Android Virtual Device Manager to run with Hyper-V enabled (or, more specifically, with Docker for Windows enabled).
Yes, the Xamarin AVD version is still in Beta. No, your rebuttals cannot be heard over the sound of my rejoicing.
For C++ Windows developers, this release adds C++/WinRT, which removes a lot of the constraints around consuming UWP APIs from C++ code, and adds support for UWP CLI tools.
While I haven't explored exactly what the latter does yet, I believe (along with the current UWP API surface area improvements) that the ChakraCore-derived version of Node + NPM could be completely packaged as UWP apps for system-wide use.
draknon - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
Microsoft was nice enough to return the edge shortcut to my desktop. I guess they thought I may have accidently deleted it (it wasn't on accident). Also, they changed the audio options when you right click on the speaker icon in the task bar. I used to be able to go directly to the playback/recording devices from here. But now, the only option is to choose sounds and then click over to the playback tab afterwards. It's another step which gets annoying.elopescardozo - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
I was contacted by a friend that after the upgrade to 1803, his Excel would crash at the first attempt to enter something in a cell. Turns out that this is a known feature : 1803 kills several older Excel versions. Apparently. Microsoft is not planning to repair this. It is either incredibly sloppy programming or a malicious way to force people to upgrade their Microsoft Office. Is this how they recuperate the "free" OS updates?Personally, I hate the way to "simplify" Windows by making active controls unrecognizable: links in the settings menue are generally gray without any indication that they are clickable. Someone should explain that a workstation is not a telephone or a tablet end never will be.
ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Product is End of Life. But the issue is 'Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2002 (KB2541003)'t.s - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
One feature that android (on and off) and linux have that windows and mac/ios doesn't have: dark theme/mode. It would be nice too, if ms edge have inverse color that chrome has (extensions).